Suas le Poblacht na h-Éirinn! [Barton, Robert] Dardis (Patr...

Estimate

€500 - €700

Suas le Poblacht na h-Éirinn!

[Barton, Robert] Dardis (Patrick G.), The Occupation of Land in Ireland in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. Maunsel 1920, boards, parchment spine.
Robert Barton’s copy, inscribed by him in Gaelic letters on f.f.e.p., ‘Riobard Bartún/ Portland Príosún / Sassana / Mí Samhna 22adh 1920 / Suas le Poblacht na h-
Éirinn!’
A superb association copy. Robert Barton, from Glendalough House in Co. Wicklow, was a cousin of Erskine Childers. In 1914 he joined the British army and served in France, where his younger brother was killed on the Somme. In Easter Week 1916 he was posted to Dublin, where he was impressed by the dignity of the
rebels and appalled by the executions. He resigned his commission, and in 1918 was elected a Sinn Fein MP. He was the Dail’s first Minister for Agriculture, and set up a
National Land Bank. In 1919 he was arrested for making seditious speeches. He escaped, but was recaptured in 1920 and sentenced to three years in Portland Prison,
where he was ill-treated. He was released in July 1921, with Arthur Griffith, to help with truce negotiations. He was a member of the Treaty delegation, and was the last
to agree to sign. He later regretted his decision and took the anti-treaty side. He lost his Dail seat in 1923 and withdrew from politics. He later became chairman of the
Agricultural Credit Corporation and of Bord na Mona. He died in 1975.  (1)